


Guardian Angel

by Hekate1308



Series: The Kindness Of The Serpent And The Dove [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 23:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21382045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekate1308/pseuds/Hekate1308
Summary: The first one he comes across is Hastur, if memory serves correctly. Apart from Beelzebub (and that only in a strictly unofficial manner, of course) Gabriel has never had much contact with the other side.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens) & Gabriel (Supernatural), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Gabriel & Sandalphon (Good Omens)
Series: The Kindness Of The Serpent And The Dove [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1541434
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47
Collections: Good Omens (Complete works)





	Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is a series now too because I have no impulse control. Enjoy!

The first one he comes across is Hastur, if memory serves correctly. Apart from Beelzebub (and that only in a strictly unofficial manner, of course) Gabriel has never had much contact with the other side.

Still, he knows a demon when he sees, or in this case, rather smells one.

He’s walking down the street to Aziraphale’s shop. It’s a beautiful day – spring has finally arrived in London, and it seems the entire city is waking up.

He really missed out on so much while refusing to go to earth more often than was strictly speaking necessary. Until the Almighty Herself decided to teach him a lesson, that is. If he’s being honest, he spends rather more time here than in heaven now.

But the other angels are just so _stubborn_ when it comes to change (not to mention the memory of Michael telling him he has no friends still rankles). And Aziraphale and Crowley are pleasant company.

To remember that he once thought of Crowley as nothing but the vile serpent of Eden almost feels comical, these days.

He’s going to invite them out to lunch, Aziraphale never says no to –

And then he smells him.

A demon. Lurking nearby.

Definitely not Crowley. Apart from not lurking in general (if anything, he slithers – part of his snake nature) Gabriel knows Crowley too well by now.

He acts quickly.

“Ah” he says, eying the demon he’s pressed against the wall in a backstreet of the book shop, “Hastur, is it?”

“Let go off me, you damn angel –“

“I believe you’re the damned one” he says simply while Hastur struggles in vain against his grip. “Now will you tell me what you’re doing here?”

He clearly is not the smartest, or at the very least, hasn’t gotten the newest memos yet (Gabriel will admit memos were quiet the idea of Crowley’s, so good they even made their way into Heaven) because his face lights up. “You’re Gabriel”

“Correct.”

“Help me, then, help me punish the traitors. You must be angry at them as well; otherwise why would you have tried to have the angel executed?”

Gabriel swallows. It’s not something he very much likes to think about really, although Aziraphale has assured him more than once that he has forgiven him.

He’s not so sure about Crowley, but that’s understandable.

“I will do no such thing. Go back to Hell” he spats, stepping away and allowing Hastur to slide down onto the pavement. A part of him would love to smite him, but he thinks of the somewhat-honest regret in Crowley’s voice when he speaks of Lingur and Aziraphale’s desire to forgive everyone, no matter who, and decides against it. “And please let everyone know that, if they should try and go after Aziraphale and Crowley, they will have to deal with me.”

Hastur, never the smartest, if Gabriel remembers correctly (although he only has a vague picture of who they were before the Fall) scrambles to his feet. “But… why!? You were the one who suggested the deal with holy water and hellfire…”

He winces once more as he remembers. Back then (how long ago it seems, even though it was nothing compared to the millennia that came before) he was so full of what he considered godly wrath, so convinced he was right.

But that’s behind him, now. “You heard what I said” he says sternly. “Off you go.”

Hastur snarls at him and is gone the next moment.

He doesn’t mention it to Aziraphale or Crowley. What for?

And if he has to fend off demons who don’t understand on a regular basis, it’s a small price to pay.

* * *

Some of the other angels have made it a habit to drop by his shop. Most simply stare at him for a while, as if they can’t fathom why the Archangel Gabriel of all beings would happily serve customers (and really, that’s only too understandable, given the last few millennia) while others, like Michael, try and cajole him back to Heaven, to become who and what he was before Her visit.

As if that’s even possible.

The ones he regrets the most, though, the ones like Sandalphon and Uriel, who he would have called his friends before all this, have yet to come, and sometimes he feels… melancholy because of it. He really thought they were close until Michael spat the truth in his face.

But he has Aziraphale and Crowley now, who actually seem to want him around (although, sometimes, he wonders in a newly self-conscious manner why) and he’s even growing a little closer to the small group of humans they have assembled around themselves. The Antichrist has already made clear there are “no hard feelings” although why any feelings should be hard isn’t something Gabriel is privy to.

Still, sometimes he misses a few of his old… acquaintances.

And then Sandalphon shows up.

Gabriel is busy in the back of the shop when the bell rings out. He hurries to greet the new customer only to meet Sandalphon.

They study one another for a moment then he says, “This is a surprise” hoping he doesn’t sound as flat as he thinks.

He looks around. “You haven’t returned to Heaven in a while.”

“Well” he drawls, “You know how it is.” He starts fussing around with a suit he tailored yesterday. “I meant to go back, but then the Globe brought a new production of King Lear, and Crowley doesn’t like the gloomy ones, so I couldn’t let him suffer through it for Aziraphale’s sake alone” (Gabriel himself quiet enjoys the tragedies, but when he tried to explain their beauty to Crowley, the serpent just muttered “typical” and refused to listen) “And then this new restaurant opened that we just had to try out and you must have heard of the fire at the children’s hospital…”

When the news broke, Crowley almost discorporated them with his driving, but they did arrive in time to ensure there were no casualties. Gabriel learned what heartbreak feels like on this day though, seeing all the little children lying in their make-shift beds on the street while the adults were running around, trying to save everything.

At least they could do some good, although Gabriel is still unsure how Crowley decided helping kids was a demon’s work.

“But right now you’re not doing anything.”

He raises his hands. “There’s the shop.”

“Yes” Sandalphon says, “I guess there is that.”

They fall silent.

It’s strange; there’ve never been any true awkward silences with Aziraphale and Crowley, not even in the beginning when Gabriel didn’t know the truth.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to come looking for you” Sandalphon suddenly rushes out. “Uriel was worried too. And a few others kept saying that you wouldn’t just disappear like that… but you know Michael. They insisted you probably needed a holiday after the punishment failed, and then there was so much to do…”

Yes, Michael’s always been good at keeping people busy. Gabriel is starting to suspect it’s that so they don’t start to think about what they are doing.

One thing he is reasonably certain of by now is that, if he spent the last six millennia on earth like Aziraphale, he wouldn’t have wanted to end it, either. “I see.”

“I – I mean – they also said you could take care of yourself, and how were we supposed to guess that She Herself had turned you human temporarily? That’s just never –“

“Sandalphon” he interrupts him. “I understand.”

And he does. Furthermore, he knows that before this… experience he wasn’t the most pleasant of angels. He isn’t even now.

He likes to think he’s learned the lesson She wanted to impart, though, and so he says, “I forgive you.”

Sandalphon looks downright shocked. “You were only human for eight months” he says, then looks contrite, as if he didn’t want to say it out loud. He manages to swallow the second part of the sentence, which Gabriel assumes would be something like _And yet you’re so different_ or _How could you have changed so much in that short period of time. _

“Yes, but I _was_ _human_. Humans have to adapt and change far more quickly than we do, Sandalphon. They don’t have much time. And She changed my memories a bit, too – hid them from me at least.”

“Is it true that Aziraphale told you you were his brother?” he asks, eyes wide and curious.

Gabriel chuckles. “That was Crowley. He didn’t know what to do and tried to bluff his way out of the situation. Still better than me, though, I fear.”

He still cringes when he remembers his attempts to blend in with the humans when visiting Aziraphale previously. _Material objects_, seriously.

Sandalphon stares at him then suddenly starts to laugh. Gabriel joins in.

“The punishment to punish them” Sandalphon recalls.

“I had to improvise.”

A pause.

“Say” Gabriel begins then, “Would you like to check out Aziraphale’s favourite café in Soho? They make wonderful eclairs…”

* * *

Aziraphale and Crowley are on a lunch date, which is why Gabriel decided to indulge in brunch at that bistro they showed him a couple of weeks ago. The waitress was only too glad to see “charming Mr. Fell’s brother” again.

It has brought Crowley no small amount of joy that he actually goes by Gabriel Fell when he needs a surname, these days.

He’s solving a crosswords puzzle, having developed a liking for them when Aziraphale started lending him their newspaper, when a sudden _swish_ announces a new arrival.

“So itzzzz true.”

He raises his head to look at Beelzebub, then says, “Hello. Would you like some orange juice?”

They blink. “What?”

“Or coffee? I can recommend both…”

“We didn’t believe the rumourzzzz”.

“What you believe or not believe is none of my concern” he shrugs. “So what’s it going to be?”

“You would eat with me?”

Gabriel studies Beelzebub. Really, he has known them for long and communicated through the back channels with them enough to read them rather well. “Why not? The war’s over – never really began, did it. No reason not to.”

“Aren’t you zzzzupposed to want to zzzzmite me?”

He shrugs again. “Aren’t you supposed to want to tear ma apart instead of talking?”

They narrow their eyes. “Izzz that the zzzerpent’s doing?”

“If you mean did Crowley tempt me to all of this… I guess I could claim they both sort of did. But they mostly treated me with kindness. Amazing what that can do, kindness.”

He’s been an angel for almost his entire existence and had to turn human to figure that out. It’s a little shameful when he thinks about it, really.

“And you protect the traitorzz now?”

“I like to think of them as friends. So, yes” he raises a finger in warning “Leave them alone. They have better things to do than cause trouble, anyway.”

Granted, some of the things they get up to are not activities Gabriel wants to dwell on, so he doesn’t.

Beelzebub is still studying him suspiciously, but finally sighs. “I suppose I could try zzome of the food, not that the world iz not ending and all…”

“Oh trust me” he brightens up, “You’ll like this...”

* * *

Aziraphale and Crowley are back from their date later that afternoon, and he strolls into the bookshop. The door is locked for humans, of course, but that can’t stop him.

“Ah, hi Gabe” Crowley greets him from the sofa he’s sprawled on, “Any news?”

“Sandalphon dropped by a couple of days ago” he says simply. “And I just had brunch with Beelzebub”.

Crowley sits up at that. “Any problems?”

“No. If you ask me, downstairs isn’t that keen on ending it all anymore, either.”

“Jolly good!” Aziraphale beams. “I’ll put the kettle on!”

Crowley throws him a fond glance. “If you say so, angel. I think we’ve still got a few biscuits, too. Gabriel can tell me all about his date with the Lord of the Flies in the meantime.”

Gabriel tells himself very firmly that his celestial Temple is not blushing.

Judging by Crowley’s grin, it doesn’t really work.


End file.
